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Creating careers in biosciences
Sai Biosciences offers R&D solution and training in job
oriented training in Bioinformatics
Information Technology has established its presence in every field. Its need
in biotechnology has created a new branch called bioinformatics. Sai Biosciences
Research Institute (SBRI) is a four year old Chennai based firm concentrating
on R&D and training in the field of biotech, bioinformatics and medical
informatics. "We started out as an R&D firm for medical informatics,"
recalls D Malathi, Director-Technical. That is why the company decided to start
training courses in biosciences. "Today, we are providing training for
people who are interested in research," she adds.
Research
R&D continues to be the focus of SBRI. It has an 18 member team working
on research. The company works on bioinformatics and medical informatics. In
medical informatics, the company has worked on computer-based surgery simulation
and image processing and vision. Research has been carried out in the areas
of developing user interface design and 2D and 3D images. "In bioinformatics,
our major research interests are in functional genomics and proteomics,"
says Malathi. Some of their research initiatives include developing a comprehensive
genome database of agricultural plants and crops, data analysis of genomic and
proteomic data sets, data mining and rational drug design. The company is also
working on developing biocomputing systems and parallel and grid computing—embedded
systems for bioinformatics, parallel algorithms and architectures. Currently,
SBRI is working on developing ligand database for autoimmune diseases. "This
database provides details about the autoimmune diseases, involves the identification
of the target region and involves the prediction of the structure of the receptors
and Identification of the target drugs," she explains.
Training
SBRI has recently tied up with University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey,
USA for conducting courses in Image Processing and Visualisation, Clinical Data
Management and Bioinformatics. While Bioinformatics is offered as Post Graduate
Diploma, others are Advance Diploma courses. These courses are offered both
full time as well as part time. In addition to these courses SBRI also offers
courses like a post graduate Diploma in Cheminformatics and Drug Designing,
diploma courses in Computer Aided Drug Designing and certificate courses in
Genomics, Proteomics, Molecular Modelling, Drug Target Identification and Drug
Discovery, Cheminformatics, Bioinformatics tools and software, and Bioprogramming.
SBRI has entered an exclusive Bioinformatics accredited training partnership
for Tamil Nadu with Accelrys Software Inc, USA.
Products and service
SBRI has also developed the products for analysis, training and data mining.
"This sequence analysis and data management tool help you to make sense
of and keep track of large amount of data as you search for viable drug targets,"
explains Malathi. Cleft audit an integrated cleft lip and palate management
software, Tooth data, a dental management system, and Bio tutor, a teaching
and research tool for bioinformatics are their other products. The company also
runs a training centre in Erode, Tamil Nadu.
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